There is a difference between knowing what you want to do, and actually making yourself do it.

What helps you move things from one category to the other?

The discipline to spend more time focusing on systems than thinking about goals.

A system gives you a tangible method that requires regular—if not daily—activity. For example, writing a novel is a goal, but writing 500 words a day is a system. It’s the small daily habit and, not the grand idea, that wins the war.

Goals are great in the short-term but systems win over the long haul by placing your focus where it should be—the process.

The process doesn’t come with deadlines, and most days you won’t be able to immediately see your progress. But over-time they’ll get you where you always wanted to go.